Oscars: Israel Selects HIV Drama ‘Tell Me Everything’ for International Feature Race

Moshe Rosenthal’s “Tell Me Everything” has been voted Best Picture at Israel’s Ophir Awards, automatically making it the country’s submission for best international feature film category at the 99th Academy Awards.

“Tell Me Everything,” set in the 1980s against the rising HIV epidemic, premiered at Sundance in the world cinema dramatic competition. It is Moshe Rosenthal’s sophomore feature. “Karaoke,” his directorial feature debut, premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.

“Tell Me Everything” follows Boaz (played by Yair Mazor), a 12-year-old who discovers a devastating secret about his father. Catching up with Boaz as an adult (played by “The Vanishing Soldier’s” Ido Tako), the film delves into their father-son relationship as they attempt to heal wounds and repair bonds. Assi Cohen (“Yossi & Jagger”) stars as Boaz’s father.

Keren Tzur (“Karaoke,” “Mary”) plays Boaz’s mother while Mor Dimri and Neta Orbach join as Boaz’s sisters.

The film won 10 awards after being nominated in 16 categories at the Ophirs, which are run by the Israeli Film Academy.

“’Tell Me Everything’ is a personal film that draws heavily from my own childhood. It’s an ambitious and unwavering journey into the beauty and burden of our memories,” Rosenthal said of the feature. “I’m so thrilled to be partnering with Paradise City on this film. Their eye for auteurs and timeless cinema is truly admirable, and I’ve been very fortunate to have them join a production family built with some of my closest creative partners, allowing us to create a platform for work that thrives on celebrating cinema as much as it embraces humanity in all its full complexity and beauty.”

Producers are Alona Refua, Maya Fischer, Roi Kurland, Gal Greenspan at Green Productions, Ben Giladi at Liminal Content, Moshe Edery and Leon Edery at United King Films. Émilie Georges and Naima Abed at Paradise City co-produce while Jonathan Margolis and Isaac Zablocki exec produce. Paradise City Sales (formerly Memento International) is repping global sales.

Last year the Ophir Awards were threatened with losing government funding by Israeli culture and sports minister Miki Zohar, after awarding top prize to “The Sea,” an Arabic-language drama about a Palestinian boy from the West Bank.

“The fact that the winning film depicts our heroic soldiers in a defamatory and false way, while they are fighting and risking their lives to protect us, surprises no one anymore,” Zohar said in an op-ed, vowing funding would be cut from this year.